Category Archives: Uncategorized

(digitised 1880’s map from The National Library of Scotland) When I went down an internet rabbit hole about crime and nineteenth century railway carriages, I mentioned that I had come across a report of an incident on the Montrose to … Continue reading →

Train travel revolutionised life for Victorians. Suddenly it became possible for people on modest incomes to travel more than they could comfortably walk in a day, and in a shorter time, be it for a school teacher to visit friends … Continue reading →

A lot of people tend to assume I have some sort of a degree in computing, life sciences, archaeology or archival studies, history even, and while it’s true to say I’ve spent time working in jobs associated with these fields, … Continue reading →

Actually there were no dead Egyptians, coffins yes, but no dead Egyptians. The National Gallery of Victoria had partnered with the British Museum to bring a collection of ancient Egyptian monumental sculpture and some other artefacts to its winter exhibition … Continue reading →

It’s usually said that crinolines went out of fashion in the late 1860s. Now we all know fashions change, but it’s an interesting observation that crinolines begin to go out of fashion about the same time as indoor plumbing, and … Continue reading →

Winter has been cold and seemingly never ending, so a few weeks ago we decided to go on a short break to FNQ. As we’d been to Europe last year, and for some other reasons, we had a pile of … Continue reading →

Over on one of my other blogs I mentioned that I’ve been trying to identify the provenance of some photographs from the Spanish civil war including this one of a group of Milicianas, young women republican soldiers The young woman … Continue reading →

I have been down an internet rabbit hole with this one. I was reading an Italian novel (in translation) and it mentioned the last Italian cavalry charge as taking place in 1942 at Poloj, in what is now Croatia, where … Continue reading →

Normally, I concentrate on either Roman antiquity, or nineteenth century history, but I’ve been down a World War 2 rabbit hole with this one. When we were in Italy last year, we stayed for part of the time in a … Continue reading →

After last year’s trip to the Pierre Bonard exhibition at the NGV, this year’s burst of Francophilia was a trip to the Belle Epoque exhibition at Bendigo Art Gallery. Strictly it wasn’t the Belle Epoque period, which is normally bracketed … Continue reading →